Chapter 1: The World of Food

The question What does it mean to eat well? is like a ball of string that’s been attacked by a kitten.

“I eat pretty well” – what does this mean?

When I first told ppl I was writing this book, I called it a cookbook, b/c to explain that it was a book about the whole of food and eating seemed too unmanageable or incomprehensible. When I said I was writing about food and eating, ppl seemed puzzled. Why would we need a book about food and eating? (Or they said “Like Michael Pollan! Have you read that omnivore book?” Yes. Sigh.)

You don’t need a new diet plan. You need a relationship with food.

Relationship with food = relationship to the world.

[eating flowchart]

eating is connected to:

  • biological/physical processes
  • eating behaviour
  • digestion, absorption
  • metabolome, individual differences (picky eating, allergies/intolerances, metabolism of things like caffeine, hormones)
  • social/cultural – small scale
  • family, friends
  • relationships with intimate partners
  • caregiving
  • expectations (interpersonal)
  • household routines and structure
  • what are you culturally attached to?
  • social/cultural – large scale
  • expectations (social)
  • food culture
  • psychological/spiritual/behavioural
  • stress
  • identity – who am I?
  • role – what part do I play?
  • modeling of behaviour
  • cooking skills and aptitude
  • value given to food and eating
  • time
  • chrononutrition and circadian rhythms
  • mealtimes (ghrelin, etc.)
  • feast-famine times and seasons
  • seasonal eating and availability of food
  • economic
  • what can you afford?
  • what are you willing to pay?
  • what is cheaply priced?
  • geographic/physical space
  • where you physically eat
  • home space (kitchen makeover)
  • public space – restaurants, conceptualization of how to act in public spaces
  • communities/neighbourhoods
  • transport – yours and the foods
  • regions
  • agricultural distribution – what can you grow, why is it grown, how does it get to you? local vs global farm systems
  • patterns of global food distribution

All of these are connected – give examples

Think Globally, Eat Locally

-the real cost of food (price, value, TRUE cost – systemwide)

-how much we CAN pay, how much we think we SHOULD pay; subsidies for fake foods

-Healthy Food Bank

-where did it come from?

-how did it get to me?

Hungry Omnivore Seeks Sanity for Meaningful Relationship

Of Biochemistry and Bananas: Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

-everything is already found in nature – Leonardo]

worse  better – goal is to move along continuum